Iron Man (2008, PG-13)

One of the better and more surprising superhero films I’ve seen in a while, Iron Man may not be the decisive film of 2008, but it’s for sure a decisive movie flick.  Starring Robert Downey Jr, and actor known well enough in Hollywood, and directed by the little-known director Jon Favreau, Iron Man co-stars Gwyneth Paltrow, Terrence Howard and Jeff Bridges.

            The film focuses on multi-billionaire Tony Stark, an arrogant genius who sells weapons to the military via Stark Industries.  Little does he know, but his genius weapons have been picked up by a few terrorists.  Early on, Stark is at a military presentation with his new ‘Jericho missile’, when he’s captured by terrorists who demand he build them weapons.  Instead, the intelligent Stark designs and builds a new Iron Man suit to break out.  Back at his home in Malibu, he spends his leisure time working on and improving his suit, while also dealing with his company.

            A big surprise to me, what I expected of Iron Man was to be a big mix of superhero fighting action.  Rather, it’s a little more character developmental that successfully keeps us more concentrated on the characters and the plot rather than the action.   

            On the other hand, the lesser amount of action scenes that are in the film are not as well executed nor thrilling or exciting.  Fortunately, this does not deviate from the main story.

            Downey Jr. did a pretty good job as Stark who transforms himself into the iron hero.  Bridges performance as the traitorous Obadiah Stane was also concurrently impressive as Downey Jr.  Paltrow’s job as Stark’s secretary and assistant Pepper Pots really could have used some improvement. 

            On the whole, I was mainly impressed by Iron Man, a film that I didn’t anticipate so well but still came out strong.      

                                      **** /5